Royal Liverpool University Hospital

This was a commission that I thought would never get finished. A new Liverpool Hospital has been built next to the old one which is due for demolition. During the course of its construction, the main building contractor, Carillion, went bust, faults were discovered in the building and with the cladding that had been used causing further costs and delays which were added to by the pandemic. The selected artists, who had been contracted to Carillion, stored their work and waited to see what would happen next. Understandably, my enthusiasm for the project started draining away as the seven oval glass panels I had made were stored behind my kiln for five years.

Drawing for glass and wall design at Ward 7A, 2015.

The selected artists had each been asked to design work for walls next to the four ward entrances on their allocated level, mine was the seventh with bright green accents. Hospitals often ask for artwork that is organic and curvy, definitely not geometric, a look that I have struggled with over the years of doing commissions for health care settings. On this occasion I decided to go for no straight lines or interlocking patterns, taking inspiration from the natural world rather than the urban environment. For each location I designed a swirly drawing that would be printed on vinyl wallpaper with shaped pieces of glass mounted on top of a pool of pale colour.

The wall next to Ward 7A (above and below) changed shape and colour during the course of the years, with a piece of glass that is the biggest and I think the best. It was hard to photograph on installation day with reflections from a screen opposite and equipment stored up against it (below).

Ward 7A during installation, left wallpaper, right with glass on top.

Ward 7D, from drawing to glass, 2015 & 2022.

Ward 7D is similar, and for this one my first drawing (above left) shows the initial concept where lines and circles spiral into the pool of overlapping colours. However, the blank wall had been too much for someone to resist, and when I visited just before installation I saw that a square access hatch had been cut into it so I moved the glass up and some white lines around on the design. This wall is opposite a window which provides some great reflections of the the new building (below right) which is white and grey and spiky in design.

Details of wall and glass at Ward 7D.

Drawing for Ward 7C, 2016.

The wall leading up to Ward 7C had room for two glass panels above the crash rail. My watercolour drawing for this one (above) is closest in feel and colour to the work installed. The changes I made to the shape of the lines and the positioning of the panels happened because of a fire alarm that I had to keep well away from. The detail (lower right) shows how the ceiling lights are effective in picking up the lines sandblasted on the edge of the glass and mixing them with fine white lines printed onto the background vinyl.

Entrance to Ward 7C

Details of the glass at Ward 7C

Drawing for Ward 7B

The wall leading up to Ward 7B, six metres long, is the one that didn’t change so neither did the lines on my watercolour drawing (above). It’s a piece of wall between bays of windows - wouldn’t it be lovely and simple to be able to go back to doing windows again! This series of three looks the simplest and cleanest with an unfortunate resemblance to a row of washing machines.

Wallpaper and glass for Ward 7C

Corridor at Ward 7C and detail of glass panel during installation.

Overall, I am delighted with my last hospital commission. The no straight lines design looks effortless and was very easy to alter over the years and to install. Above all the colours look great, the transparent enamels on the glass are strong against the pastel coloured wallpaper and complement the tricky green on level 7. It’s hard to find your way around this building, hopefully this commission will help you remember the way and give you a boost of energy as you watch the patterns swirling around.

My wallpapers

My designs for wallpapers are one offs - digitally printed for a specific place. This aspect of my practice has developed alongside the glass panels I make, sometimes the wallpapers are seen through a glass wall panel, sometimes they are a solid wall to contrast with a coloured window.

In my commission for the paediatric mortuary at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, the wallpapers played an important part in linking together a series of rooms that we decorated with new colours and artworks in glass and vinyl. The project was completed last year when I described the vinyl door vision panels here and the main glass artwork here. After a recent visit to check out the new furniture that completed the scheme I saw how well the wallpapers worked in the tricky spaces.

Model of the tricky spaces - five rooms with no external windows

I designed the wallpapers to a brief that asked for abstract artworks, with little reference to the outside world. Because of the unique nature of the space and the sensitivities of the people who would use it, they needed to be nothing like you would have in your home, and nothing like you would ever see again. The designs followed a series of workshops with staff and bereaved families who gave their opinions forcefully. Back in my studio I made a series of watercolours and collages that drew on the workshops and formed the basis of my designs.

A favourite collage, I tried not to stray too far from this in the following designs for five wallpapers.

Design for Room 2. Waiting Corridor. 2.6 x 6.8 metres

Photos of the trickiest narrowest space, the waiting corridor.

Design for Room 3. Children's Viewing. 2.6 x 2.6 metres

Photos through the viewing window to the viewing room wallpaper.

Design for Room 4. Children's Bedroom. 900mm x 6.4 metres

Photos from the viewing room to the Children’s Bedroom wallpaper and glass panel.

Design for Room 5. Babies’ Viewing. 2.6 x 1.8 metres

Photos into babies’ viewing room and through the viewing window.

Design for Room 6. Babies’ Bedroom. 900mm x 6.4 metres

Photos through viewing window into the babies’ bedroom with wallpaper and glass panel.

Approach corridor

Vinyl/glass/vinyl window at Manchester Children’s Hospital: 1800 mm square.

Sunburst was not the title intended for the piece I have just installed in a white corridor leading to the paediatric mortuary at Manchester Children’s Hospital. However in the record breaking February sunshine this week and framed by the corrugated sides of the hospital building outside, it glows like a gentle star. As you can see in the photo below left, dramatic shadows and colours are cast on to the floor - surely the best thing about stained glass. Evidently I hadn’t dared imagine the effect would be so good as the collage of my design on to the photo of the space shows (below right).

Left: Feature window at the entrance to the paediatric mortuary. Right: Photomontage of the same space.

This feature window is part of a commission for artworks in the series of rooms that make up the mortuary. It was almost two years ago when I designed the work following consultation with staff and bereaved families and to a brief that asked for the artwork to be abstract, with no representational imagery and using gentle colours and shapes. Last month I wrote about the colour scheme and the door vision panels; there will be more on the wall designs (digitally printed wallpaper), wall panels and viewing windows when the new furniture arrives to complete the rooms later on.

Below is a page of sketches showing the development of the design for the feature window. I was concerned about working with - rather than fighting against - the horizontal bars and not blocking the wonderful view.

12 sketches showing development of the design

Window detail: vinyl on the left in this picture.

The feature window is made up of a hefty piece of laminated and toughened printed glass (2500 x 780 x 17mm) flanked by two pieces of printed transparent vinyl applied to the surface of the existing window. I hadn’t tried this combination up against each other before, and was apprehensive that the colours on the vinyl would look weak against the sparkling enamels on the glass. But they compliment each other well, the white/shadows are just as strong, and the pattern cast on the floor is colourful but subtle.

Colour sequence

This is part of a project I have been doing in the paediatric mortuary at Manchester Childrens’ Hospital. Over the past two years I have designed artworks for a suite of five rooms following extensive consultation with bereaved parents and hospital staff and negotiated with manufacturers and the hospital estates department to get the works, made of vinyl and glass, installed.

Vinyl detail: Double doors leading to the mortuary: Locked doors in the corridor

The overall scheme is now starting to come together with new colours on the walls and coloured vinyl on the door vision panels. These make an impact that is much larger than their size and help you find your way through the maze of windowless rooms that make up this backwater of the hospital building. The design on the vinyl is simple, the complicated part is the layered printing so that one half of each panel is translucent and the other is opaque i.e. a colour printed over a white layer. In the detail shown above left the blue is opaque and the yellow is translucent therefore it glows as you approach the double doors to the (badly sign posted) mortuary. In the next part of the corridor there is a pair of locked doors so the vinyl on these has a different design that is totally opaque - attractive but hopefully uninviting (above right).

Entrance door: Babies’ room door: Children’s room door with room light on and off

The main pattern is ordered, simple and gentle rather than geometric and rigid. The entrance door to the waiting area is green/blue, this leads to the babies’ room (blue/yellow) and the children’s room (yellow/green)- all shown above. The back door of the babies’ room is also blue/yellow but with the translucent and opaque sides reversed, while the back of the children’s room is blue/pink - all shown below. When the light behind the door is off you can see the colour on the opaque part of the design, while the translucent part appears very dark. This is a technique I have borrowed from my glass designs where I use textured opaque areas so that some colour is visible in a variety of light conditions. So far I’m happy with the installation which is still in progress - the colours are spot on.

Door at back of babies’ room with lights on and off: Back of children’s room

New glass

In 2011 Yeovil District Hospital refurbished the Haematology and Oncology Department and asked me to design various artworks spread throughout the suite of treatment, consultation and waiting rooms. They are printed on a variety of materials; transparent window vinyl, vinyl wallpaper, fabric for screens and paper for wall boxes. 2018 has brought a second refurbishment and more opportunities for my work in the new department.

Digitally printed vinyl wallpaper outside consultation room and in waiting corridor.

I find revisiting old commissions nerve wracking - have they stood the test of time and do people, including me, really like them? What I liked on this revisit was my design, based on wavy lines and filled in with peaceful colours, that links all the different artworks (above). The wallpaper still looks good on the corridor walls, although I wish Dr. Bolam would put his board elsewhere. I particularly like the corridor wall where you can see the waves starting with a shallow curve at the bottom where they hug the crash rail and swelling with life as the curve increases towards the ceiling. 

Design for entrance wall, digital wallpaper and glass square: glass sample in progress

The wavy lines were the basis for the new work, but this time I pulled them apart and upside down so they float around in a looser formation. There is more wallpaper, some printing on acrylic and even some glass panels. The design flows across these different materials (above left), in the middle the glass square glows with backlit colour (below right). It was so exciting actually making some glass for a change, see the sample with layers of vivid colour on the sandblasted surface (above right). As usual, the sample was a quite different colour from the real thing. I opened the kiln (below left) and marvelled at the fantastic, luscious pink surface - just one firing! 

Glass square in the kiln after firing: during installation in the newly papered entrance wall.

Detail of the finished glass square (575 x 575 mm).

The second glass panel was for a screen in the waiting area. I made this piece over a weekend - every process went smoothly including installation and admiration. In the design for this one, and by the way the design takes far longer than the manufacture, I took out the wavy lines one by one until only two remained to link this artwork to the others.

Design for glass insert in screen: finished glass panel photographed in studio: glass installed in waiting room screen

Detail through screen, showing hand cut, painted and printed detail in transparent enamels.